11 Christians jailed in Vietnam are missing, US NGO says

Five Catholics and six Protestants who were jailed in Vietnam for a range of offenses related to religious activities dating back to 2011 have gone missing, highlighting a larger problem within the communist country’s judicial system, International Christian Concern (ICC) has said. It said nine of the Christians had been jailed for “undermining national unity policy” due…

New Bill combats underage porn consumption

Matt Letourneau   This Thursday, Seanad Éireann will debate the new Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill 2024, introduced by Senator Rónán Mullen last week. According to Mr Mullen, “this Bill would require online providers of pornographic material to carry out strict age verification to ensure that U-18s cannot access their material.” The proposed…

Human trafficking: a crime against humanity

Human trafficking: a crime against humanity Dear Editor, I was deeply moved by the recent article discussing the escalating issue of human trafficking and the call for increased parish involvement in combating this grave injustice. Cardinal Vincent Nichols’ stark observation that “things are getting worse” underlines the urgent need for action within our communities [The…

British lords, celebrities call on Vatican to preserve ‘treasure’ of Latin Mass

A distinguished cadre of British public figures is calling upon the Holy See to preserve what they describe as the “magnificent” cultural artifact of the Catholic Church’s Traditional Latin Mass. In 2021 Pope Francis placed sweeping restrictions on the celebration of Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal, known also as the extraordinary form of the Roman rite…

A fair wind for Prime Minister Starmer

It was a curious feature of the erstwhile British government that, despite the ruling party being officially named the ‘Conservative and Unionist Party’, the higher-ups in London showed very little interest in the part of the United Kingdom on the northeast of this island. The role of Secretary of State for the North has never…